Gerard Dou

As the son of a glass engraver, Gerard Dou (or Gerrit Dou), 1613-1675, began by learning to engrave and paint glass. In 1628, he was apprenticed to Rembrandt. Here Dou learned the art of chiaroscuro, the contrast of light and shade which became his speciality: his candlelit scenes became all the rage. Dou’s genre paintings also sold for high prices. His meticulous style was highly influential. Followers included his pupil Frans van Mieris, a leading Leiden fijnschilder. In 1665, Dou presented work in a one-man exhibition at the home of artist Johannes Hannot, featuring no less than 27 of his paintings from the collection of fellow townsman Johan de Bye. Dou enjoyed an international reputation: various kings and princes acquired work by him. Yet despite offers of appointments to royal courts abroad, Dou never left Leiden.

A young man leans on a window ledge, smoking a pipe and looking out at us. Dou was a master of illusionism. The open book on the sill seems to protrude from the window into our space, and the curtain hanging from the copper rod is so realistically painted that we are tempted to draw it farther back. However, the painting’s small size gives away the...

The book is rendered in such detail that it is easy to see what the woman is reading: the beginning of chapter 19 of the Gospel of Luke. The passage states that those who wish to do good must give away half of all they own to the poor. The old woman’s expensive clothing contrasts sharply with this message: she is still attached to worldly possessions.
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An old hermit dressed in a Franciscan habit, his clasped hands resting on a well-thumbed page of the open Bible, kneels before a crucifix and contemplates the mysteries of Christ’s death and resurrection. Gerrit Dou was fascinated by the subject of the contemplative life and its virtue, and he produced at least eleven hermit scenes over the course of his...